Help Painting... my old nemesis.

[Jatlan-cuiatl]

This weekend I'm going to be building my first Lizardmen / Seraphon and I'm going to be putting a lot of thought into the future of my army. Among the things I'm thinking of, painting is the most important right now, because no matter how awesome the bases look, or the models themselves, they're nothing but greymatter if they're not painted.

So I've been throwing ideas around in my head about colors. I've looked into color theory, I've used GW examples to inspire me, and I've thought about what colors I like in general. To me, the most vibrant and pop-ey colors are White, Red, Orange, Yellow, Purple and Blue while Black, Grey, Brown, Pink and Green are very muted or at least "plain" colors.

I saw the picture of the purple-scaled, tan-fleshed Carnosaur and thought how cool an entire army of saurus, skinks, dinos and my Slann character would look in a similar scheme but there are so many other options! Its a good problem to have, to be sure, but it's a frustrating one!

I was also thinking about which colors would go with certain metallic ones, since metallic colors are heavily featured in the Seraphon / Lizardmen aesthetic. Gold often looks very striking in compliment to blue (of course!), purple, red, and surprisingly along side brown. Silver looks very good along side red, purple, yellow and green. I also thought that metallic colors could be substituted for more arcane/celestial appearances, like orangey-sun colors or purpley-arcane colors.

Then of course, the soldiers themselves, I want to look suitable both as living things (if I so choose to say they are) and as celestial reptile-daemon constructs. Generally, I do want to go with a brighter, flashier color scheme and steer away from the more muted "natural" look. I'm looking at Hive Fleet Leviathan or Hive Fleet Jormungandr from the Tyranid ranges as inspiration as well since they are very alien-reptilian-star monster too.

Please help point me in the right direction! Suggestions, ideas, anything! <3

 

[Warden]

Whenever I think celestial, stars, and lizards, I think @Oldblood Itzahuan and the works done by @Lorrec

Spoiler

@Oldblood Itzahuan and his starry star lizards (link):



@Lorrec kinda has his stuff everywhere I think, but here is a link to the Itza gallery.

To be honest, the best place to start is probably the Itza Gallery of Fine Arts itself; everything is organized by unit type, and there are tons of great finished products for you to pick and choose from, whatever your tastes are!

I hope this helps get you started, good luck in your projects!

 

[Crowsfoot]

Go purple as it goes with most metallics, @n810 has a link to an interactive tool that will help you design your colour scheme.

 

[Ritual]

Don't forget to consider what colour bases you're going to be going with when considering your colour choices - you'll generally want to go with either a contrasting or complementary colour. I prefer contrast because it helps to make the model really pop on the base.